Owaisi slams Sena for seeking 'burqa ban', asks EC to take note

Hitting out at the Shiv Sena for allegedly seeking a burqa ban, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi Wednesday said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party should know that the Constitution gives autonomy to individuals.

The article in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' on the matter was a grave violation of the Model Code of Conduct, claimed the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president. He asked the Election Commission to take immediate note of it.

The article was trying to create divisions and polarisation in society, he alleged.

"May I give them some knowledge, some gyan because they are ignorant... I am to remind them that the Supreme Court judgment on privacy, the supreme court judgment on (Article) 377 clearly lays down that choice.

"For Shiv Sena's ignorant people, I am spelling that out for them, choice, is now fundamental right," Owaisi told reporters here.

He said as per the Indian Constitution one can choose and do whatever they like.

"That is your autonomy. Unfortunately and deliberately, for all these Hindutva ignorant people, when you talk about constitution, they go completely mad about it.

"Because, they dont understand the pluralism of our country," he said.

Owaisi said the Shiv Sena was frustrated as "they are going to lose a huge number of seats in the elections".

"That is why they are indulging in what I called dog-vigil politics," he said.

In the report, published in Saamana, the Sena had said if burqa was banned in "Ravan's Lanka, then why not in Ram's Ayodhya."
Asked about the BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur's reported comments that people can give up burqa in national interest, Owaisi said such "nonsensical statements" were expected from her -- who has "had no hesitation in demeaning a martyr of this country (Hemant Karkare)."